Miami is beginning to look like Manhattan, at least in terms of what buyers are willing to shell out for a square foot of prime real estate.

In New York, the average per-square-foot price for a new luxury condo ranges from the high $2,000s to the low $3,000s. The Magic City is still cheaper at the top of the market, but just a little: Units in the two ritziest towers going up — Ian Schrager’s Residences at Miami Beach Edition and Terra Group’s Glass, also in Miami Beach — are averaging more than $2,500. By comparison, the least expensive is Juno Beach’s Bay Colony, at $241. The median listing price: $682, according to research by Condo Vultures and Cranespotters.com, which provide market data.

The reasons fueling Miami’s dizzying prices today are the same ones that launched Manhattan’s meteoric rise so long ago: Growing prestige as a world city, which creates demand, and an influx of international cash, which lifts the price floor. Right now, in this market run-up, there are 85 condo projects that the region’s cities have signed off on and 45 that developers want to build but don’t have the okay yet. Construction crews are busy at work on 34 towers. And only three are finished so far.

Together, the projects in their various phases represent well over 20,000 new units and more than 170 towers. The sizes of projects this time around are smaller than the last boom. Of 46 projects in preconstruction, nearly half — 22 — have fewer than 100 units. And there is a correlation between the number of units and the per-square-foot cost, an analysis by The Real Deal shows.

MIAMI—The 40th new condo tower since 2007 has officially been proposed for Greater Downtown Miami. One Brickell CityCentre will become part of Swire Properties’ $1.1 billion Brickell CityCentre mixed use project.

As one of the tallest buildings in Florida, One Brickell CityCentre will include retail, class A offices, condominiums, and hotel capped by signature restaurant and lounge. The plan envisions grand plazas and retail shops connected to Brickell CityCentre’s phase one, now under construction, and covered by the Climate Ribbon, an elevated climate control trellis and architectural statement that unifies the project.

The push for new condo construction comes as the boom-era unit inventory is dwindling in Greater Downtown Miami and South Florida alike, CondoVultures.com reports. As of June 30, 2013, less than 500 new condos were unsold out of a total of more than 22,200 units created in the Greater Downtown Miami market during the last South Florida boom that began in 2003, according to the firm’s recent report.

Here's the first look at the Arquitectonica-designed Hyde Midtown tower that Jorge Perez is building in Midtown Miami, which exMiami calls the SLS Hotel's alter-ego. (more renderings at exMiami, this way) The tower will be on the 3 Midtown site, finally filling in one of Midtown Miami's many remaining gaps. Architecturally, it's got this geometric, repetitive jig-jag thing going with the balconies that looks straight out of a 1980s office building, a time when Arquitectonica was (ironically?) known for its avant-garde designs much more than it is today.

Bal Harbour Shops, an international symbol par excellence of Miami-style excess, and the most successful mall on the planet, has submitted plans to the Village of Bal Harbour to expand its footprint to the west by 250,000 square feet, mainly where the mall's parking garage is now. Additions would include a new department store anchor, at least 20 additional specialty boutiques along a new U-shaped mall, and a new house of worship for the mall's neighbor, the Church by the Sea.

Bal Harbour Shops intends to purchase the existing village hall (where village leaders hold court) to be able to build over it and build a new one, do the same with the Church by the Sea, revamp the mall's Collins Avenue entranceway, add a linear park along Bal Bay Drive, and construct a lush new entranceway at 96th Street. A less ambitious plan—if the bigger plans don't fly with city elders—calls for an expansion within Bal Harbour Shops' existing property lines. Either way, the whole thing will cost about $200 million, with a coming out party in 2016.

Work just completed on the sales center for the queen of parametric deformations Zaha Hadid's Miami condo tower, her first skyscraper in the western hemisphere, One Thousand Museum. The sales center is at Ten Museum Park downtown, another tower by developers Gregg Covin and Louis Birdman that's next door to the building site, and is stuffed with furniture designed by Zaha as well as an elaborate ceiling installation by Zaha too.

A 1.44 acre site that spans the entire 3200 block of Biscayne Boulevard has been sold for $9.1 million. The sale was recorded on October 10th.

The seller is Park Lane Towers, LLC, part of the estate of Carlo Salvi, which was run locally by Mallory Kauderer. A settlement reached in September between the estate and Kauderer allowed for the sale, along with the sale of the Brickell Flatiron site to Ugo Colmbo. It also opens the possibility that other properties that were part of the portfolio could soon be sold, including the 1550 Chelsea site.

The buyer is 345 NE 32ND SN LLC, controlled by the owners of a congolomerate called First Quality in Great Neck, New York. The new owners recently sold the Cima condo site for $27.5 million.

A 615,000 square foot mixed-use tower designed by Chad Oppenheim called Park Lane Tower was once approved for the site when it was controlled by Amir Ben-Zion.

David Beckham has picked Miami as the location for his new soccer club, and the team could be playing in a new stadium in Miami’s urban core.

The Telegraph and Reuters are reporting that Beckham wants a purpose-built stadium in Miami’s Urban Core. The team could play temporarily at Joe Robbie Stadium, FIU, or possibly even Marlins Park until a new stadium is complete.

As part of a deal to sign with the Los Angeles Galaxy in 2007, Beckham was given the option by MLS to become a team owner at a discounted rate of $25 million. Beckham is now exercising that option with a Miami franchise.

Why Miami? Beckham told the AP yesterday that ‘Miami excites me because I think it’s a city that is very excitable’.

Brickell Avenue will soon be home to one of the tallest buildings in the United States, if plans submitted by Swire Properties are approved.
One Brickell City Centre is proposed to rise to a height of 1,102 feet, according to data obtained by exMiami. Thanks to an extra nine feet of elevation at the project’s 700 Brickell Avenue site, the total height will be 1,111 feet above mean sea level.
Plans are already being reviewed by the FAA. If approved and built at that height, the tower would become the eighth tallest building in the United States, and the tallest outside of New York or Chicago.

I would have liked to have seen Bal Harbor respond more to the street face of Collins/Harding Avenues. Adding high profile storefronts along the avenue, like on Rodeo Drive, becoming a part of the charm of the lovely shopping district of Surfside, instead of turning it's back on the immediate neighborhood. Creating a more urban streetscape and less of a mall-like ambience. They will be getting a big competetor is coming in the Design District, a fress look and a higher profile would do them good.

The first photo actually shows 4 different projects under construction at the same time. Notice how you can now see Brickell House under construction far off to the left from this angle.

__________________"I'm going to bet you that when we're done --- I don't know when that will be --- historians will identify this as the most significant and rapid transformation of an American city.'' Former Miami City Commissioner Johnny Winton 05/22/2005

ExMiami notes major demolition work is happening at the historic Ankara Motel in South Beach, where Starwood intends to build an Aloft Hotel. Apparently more demolition is being allowed by the historic preservation board than had been previously planned because of rotting wood found in the structure. Aloft had spent quite a long time trying to get their plans approved, after repeated rejections, by the historic preservation board, but... well... it happened and the place is now just a shell.

Construction at developer Tibor Hollo's Panorama Tower, which once was—but no longer is—destined to be Miami's tallest skyscraper, may finally be getting under way. A tipster, and self described "Curbed Miami loyalist" (aww, shucks) who works in Hollo's building next door sent along this photo of the site, showing workers clearing away mature shade trees, and a duo of buses that will serve as transportation to the building's temporary parking lot two blocks away. The Panorama Tower is being built partially on the site of that office building's parking garage, making the temporary parking necessary.